A Coven of Werewolves
by rock redemption
Summary: After everything is said and done, a witch coven with werewolves in it as equals is still Even more so, a werewolf pack with witches in Ava Henderson grew up with Stiles and Scott, but now life is Between raising her siblings, fighting evil witches, and living with a wolf pack, what's a girl to do?
1. Preview

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Teen Wolf characters, but the OCs are mine and the story is mine. This won't be following the Teen Wolf plot anyways.

This is a taste test for a story I'm currently working on. If you like it, let me know and I'll publish the rest of it.

* * *

I was rushing around the house in preparation to go pick up Carmen and Andy from school when the doorbell rang.

Not expecting visitors, I went to the door and glanced through the peep hole. Surprised to see Stiles, I hesitated before opening the door and ushering him in.

"Hey, um, what are you doing here?" I asked as he walked in and I shut the door behind him.

"Just wanted to hang out and see you," he said. "You haven't been to school since last week. That, and my dad is working a major case right now, so I was wondering if I could stay here for a while?"

"Yeah, sorry for not telling you, but the principal said that I only have to show up for exams and whenever a teacher wants to talk to me about something. And yeah, you can stay here."

"Oh. We miss you at lunch. It gets pretty quiet without you there," he looked down as he said this. "So, what's up? Thanks, by the way for letting me stay."

"No problem. I was about to make some cookies for when Carmen and Andy do their homework tonight. Wanna help?"

"Sure," he replied. "Just tell me what to do. When do you have to go pick them up, anyway?"

"Um..." I hesitated, glancing at my watch. "Now. Could you pick them up for me? It would be a huge help and I still have some stuff to do before they get home."

He shrugged, but then shook his head.

"How about you get them and I do whatever it is that needs to be done?"

"Are you sure," I asked. When he nodded, I told that the table needed to be cleared and the cookies needed to be put in the oven. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah," he assured. "Just leave it to me and go get them."

I nodded and grabbed my purse and keys, heading out to the garage door to my precious 2013 GMC Acadia. It wasn't my favorite vehicle, rather the most useful. It was safe, big enough for us to pack up and leave at a moment's notice, relatively good gas mileage, and it wasn't a car that would need replaced for quite some time.

I pulled out of the garage and drove in silence to the kids' elementary school for pick up. I had to wait in the long line of cars for about fifteen minutes before Andy saw me and dragged Carmen over to hop in so we could go.

"Hey guys. How was school today?" Neither looked upset, but it was hard to tell with these two.

"We were called down to the office again today," Andy said.

"They think we're insane," Carmen muttered from the back seat. "They think we'll flip out in the middle of class."

"Really," I questioned. I had told the school to leave them alone unless they deliberately acted out and, in that case, the school was to call me first. "What did they talk to you about?"

Andy hesitated before opening his mouth, before he could say anything though, Carmen cut across and started talking.

"They kept asking if we were happy living with you and if you were taking good care of us," she said quickly. "They wanted to know how you planned to take care for us."

I nodded, figuring that the school would go behind my back to try and take my siblings away with dirty tricks. "And what did you two tell them?"

"We said that we liked living with you," Andy volunteered.

"And that our lives really hadn't changed from before the fire," Carmen added. "We told them how you had always been the only person taking care of us."

"We told them that you made money by writing and publishing stuff," Andy commented.

"And that nothing they said would make us leave you," they said together. It's no wonder that they're twins at times like this.

"Well, I'm glad that you feel that way and that you were honest," I said, stressing the word honest. They hadn't lied, but I didn't want them to think they had to lie for me if ever they felt the need to. "By the way, Stiles is going to be staying at the house for the next week or so since his dad is busy on a case, so try to be nice."

"Is he there now?" Carmen asked, sharing a look with Andy.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

They shrugged in unison. "No reason," they said simultaneously.

By then, we had arrived back at the house and they jumped out of the car and dashed to the front door with me following calmly.

"Hey kids, welcome home," I heard Stiles say from inside. "Hey Ava, you okay? You're blanking out on us."

"Huh,"I looked up and say him waving his hand in my face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for holding down the fort till I got back. And you two," I started, turning my gaze to my siblings. "Homework at the dining room table now or you can't have any of the cookies Stiles made." With that, Carmen and Andy almost sprinted to the dining room and dug out their homework. Soon the long table was covered in papers, pencils, and workbooks.

"We'll be in the kitchen or living room," I said as I walked out of the room. "Holler if you need help and you can each have a cookie after I see a completed assignment from each of you." I grabbed Stiles' arm and dragged him with me towards the kitchen and the beeping oven.

"Thanks for helping out today,"I said as I got the cookies out of the oven.

Stiles stared at my hands as I held onto the tray. "Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"

"What?" I looked at my hands and realized that I had forgotten to grab the mitts. "It's fine. The nerves in my hands were pretty much destroyed in the fire. I can't feel-" He reached around me and grabbed the tray with a single mit covered hand. "-the heat. Thanks, I guess."

"Just because you can't feel it doesn't mean that it can't hurt you," he chided as he placed the tray on the stove. "Besides, I thought you said the damage was limited."

"I did and it is. The nerves in my hands just don't recognize heat or pain," I argued. "I can still use them."

"That's not really limited," he admonished. "That's pretty severe nerve damage. Have you seen a doctor about it?"

"No, and I don't plan to either,"I shrugged when he glared. "It's not a big on, thanks for helping today."

He smiled at me and said, "Anytime, especially since I get to stay here." He grinned and ran off to Andy's call from the dining room, leaving me to load the dishwasher.

"Ava!" Carmen called from somewhere in the age old house. "I need your help!"

With a wave of my hand, the dishes were all in their places and the ones from the sink loaded into the machine. Nodding at my handiwork, I wiped my hands on my jeans and headed to her voice.

"What's wro-" I started to ask until I saw her standing in the middle of the den surrounded by piles of laundry. "What did you do?"

"I think the house got tired of our laziness," she grinned until she saw that I was not amused. Sobering up she said, "I walked in and the clothes fell from the ceiling. Is the laundry room even on this floor?"

"No," I answered. "It's on the main floor. Why did you come down here anyway? You have homework that's not done yet."

"I thought I heard something."

"So you came down here by yourself to see? You do understand that you can't do anything until you're thirteen, right?" She huffed and went over to the stairs before looking over her shoulder at me and grinning.

"You're just worried that Stiles is gonna figure out the family secret before you tell him,"she joked.

"Yes I am worried that he'll figure it out," I confessed. "But he's going to at some point, just not by having laundry magickally dropped on his head."

She stared at me for a second before spinning and dashing upstairs. I followed more slowly, but stopped at the base of the stairs. Turning back to the mess, I hesitated before snapping my fingers and watching the clothes fly around my head before vanishing into their rightful places. Satisfied, I continued walking up the stairs and back into the dining room.

Stiles was still helping Andy when I walked in, but looked up and smiled before quickly looking back down. He didn't notice that his student wasn't paying attention since Andy was staring at me before glancing at Stiles and looking back again. He must have seen something because he shook his head before tuning back in to whatever Stiles was saying.


	2. Chapter 1

Journal Entry #4

Date: November 7, 2012

You would think that a house fire set to kill you and and your siblings by your own mother would dissuade you from living in the parts of the structure that weren't burnt to the ground. Surprisingly not, in the case of my siblings and I. We still live in that same house at 154 Collins Dr. that we have since I was six, but now it's just my brother and sister and I.

You would think that the loss of a parent would make life more challenging for any kid. The onslaught of grief alone should have broken what little emotional stability we had after a fire like that. Less surprisingly this time, we were fine. The only contributions my mother had ever made to any of our lives were giving birth to us and picking out the house we live in. I've raised the twins since they were born, which is alarming considering I was only nine at the time. I've been the one providing for my siblings and I as our mom became possessed by her magick. I've been the one keeping us together regardless of who it was trying to pull us apart.

It's only been a couple of months since the fire, my mom's death, and the night I became sole legal guardian to my much younger siblings. However, nothing much has changed since the fire. I'm still in school, I just only go in when the teachers need me to or for exams. Carmen and Andy still go to the same elementary school. I still provide for the family with money from the insurance, the inheritance, my mother's retirement, and whatever I make from the publishing house in Brockton, an hour or so away from Beacon Hills. And I still don't know how I'm supposed to explain being a witch to the local werewolf pack that my best friends all seem to be involved with.

Let's see, which tidbit there is more surprising? The fact that I'm a witch or the thing about werewolves?

The fact that I'm a witch isn't really surprising at all actually. I'm a Henderson. Henderson females are all witches, my being one was decided long before I was even born. Same with my little sister, Carmen. No one knows about us, but if werewolves are in town, I have to tell them. Which brings us back to werewolves.

I know that the pack in Beacon Hills is made up of seven werewolves and four humans, one of which is a hunter. I also know that there is a family of hunters, the Argents, and that the prior leader of said family did not go by the hunter code. I know that the wolves are mostly my classmates and make up a decent portion of the lacrosse team. Basically, I know about them and they have no clue about me, which explains why Stiles and Scott always act all secretive when I get within hearing distance.

Anyway, have to figure out how to tell the alpha what I am without making him, yes I know it's Derek, see me and my family as a threat rather than and important ally. The Henderson Coven and the Hale Pack used to be allies before my grandmother passed away leaving my mother in charge, and this was long before the fire that killed all but three of the Hales. My mother let the alliance fall to ruins as she fell into a power driven madness and the Hales wanted nothing to do with a witch lost in her own insanity.

Telling Derek outright would be the best option, but that would open the door for a shocked werewolf to attack me. Since I became head of the family, I tried to keep us as invisible as I could in the supernatural world, but we need an alliance with the pack to stop other Covens from attacking Beacon Hills. The Henderson line is the strongest line of witches, but since my mother's death, I'm the only one left until Carmen comes of age, which isn't for another six years. in the meantime, we could use all the help we can get.

It's weird, but I'm confident that telling Derek will bring back the alliance. It would be mutually beneficial for the both of us and it would make Beacon Hills an even safer place. With my magick and the brute strength of the werewolves, this town will be as safe as it was when my grandmother was alive.


	3. Chapter 2

"I've been picking them up from school since the beginning," I muttered as I scrambled around the house, preparing to go pick up Carman and Andy from school. "You'd think I would know what time to pick them up and not have to rush." My self rant was interrupted by the clear sound of the doorbell in the otherwise silent house. I scowled, this was only going to make me late for pick up and the school would try to place the twins in a foster home. Again.

As I rushed to the front door I was grumbling under my breath. That stupid principal was determined that I was unfit as a caregiver simply because I was still a student, even after the courts told him to back off. I glanced through the peephole and almost smiled when I saw that it was Stiles, but I was in a hurry. I opened the door with only slight hesitation.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked as he walked in and I shut the door behind him. I practically pushed him into the kitchen so that I could pop the cookies in the oven while we talked.

"Just wanted to hang out and see you," he said. "You haven't been to school since last week. That, and my dad is working a major case right now, so I was wondering if I could stay here for a while?"

I nodded absentmindedly, until what he said actually clicked. "Yeah, sorry for not telling you, but the principal said that I only have to show up for exams and whenever a teacher wants to talk to me about something. And yeah, you can stay here." Not like he hasn't before.

"Oh. We miss you at lunch. It gets pretty quiet without you there," he looked down as he spoke. "So, what's up? Thanks, by the way, for letting me stay."

"No problem." I looked up from the oven to smile at him. "I was about to make some cookies for when Carmen and Andy do their homework tonight. Wanna help?"

He nodded. "Sure. Just tell me what to do." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "When do you have to go pick them up, anyway?"

"Shit." I muttered, glaring at my watch. "Right now. Could you pick them up for me? It would be a huge help and I still have some stuff to do before they get home."

He shrugged, but then shook his head. At my crestfallen look, he coughed before saying, "How about you get them and I do whatever it is that needs to be done?"

"Are you sure," I asked. When he nodded, I told that the table needed to be cleared and the cookies needed to be put in the oven. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah," he assured. "Just leave it to me and go get them."

I grinned and exclaimed, "My hero!" Then I lunged across the kitchen island to get my purse and cell before walking up to Stiles, kissing his cheek, and rushing to the part of the garage that housed my baby.

Well, not my baby, but my darling 2013 GMC Acadia. It wasn't my favorite vehicle, rather the most useful. It was safe, big enough for us to pack up and leave at a moment's notice, relatively good gas mileage, and it wasn't a car that would need replaced for quite some time.

I pulled out of the garage and drove in silence to the kids' elementary school for pick up. I had to wait in the long line of cars for about fifteen minutes before Andy saw me and dragged Carmen over to hop in so we could go.

"Hey guys. How was school today?" I asked while glancing at them through the rearview mirror. Neither looked upset, but it was hard to tell with these two, especially since the fire.

"We were called down to the office again today," Andy said, staring out the window as we left the crowded parking lot.

"They think we're insane," Carmen muttered from beside Andy in the back seat. "They think we'll flip out in the middle of class." She scoffed like the idea was completely impossible and I smothered a laugh.

"Really," I questioned. I had told the school to leave them alone unless they deliberately acted out and, in that case, the school was to call me first. "What did they talk to you about?"

Andy hesitantly turned from the window before opening his mouth, he couldn't say anything though since Carmen cut across and started talking.

"They kept asking if we were happy living with you and if you were taking good care of us," she said annoyed. This was the third time this month that they had been pulled out of class for the same reason. She should be annoyed.

Andy scowled. "They wanted to know how you planned to provide for us."

I nodded with a frown, figuring that the school would go behind my back to try and take my siblings away with dirty tricks. "And what did you two tell them?"

"We said that we liked living with you," Andy volunteered.

"And that our lives really hadn't changed from before the fire," Carmen added. "We told them how you had always been the only person taking care of us."

"We told them that you made money by writing and publishing stuff," Andy supplied.

"And that nothing they said would make us leave you," they said together. It's no wonder that they're twins at times like this, their voices are almost exactly the same and sound like one person when they talk together. They've been doing this since they were born, but it's still weird and kinda creepy.

"Well, I'm glad that you feel that way and that you were honest," I said, stressing the word honest. They hadn't lied, but I didn't want them to think they had to lie for me if ever they felt the need to. "By the way, Stiles is going to be staying at the house for the next week or so since his dad is busy on a case, so try to be nice."

"Is he there now?" Carmen asked, sharing a look with Andy. Their twin telepathy was almost frustrating, but since there was nothing I could do about it. Oh well.

"Yes. Why?" I didn't even try to hide my suspicion as I asked.

They shrugged in unison. "No reason," they said simultaneously.

"Right," I muttered, but by then, we had arrived back at the house and they had jumped out of the car and dashed to the front door before I could say more on the subject. I sighed and got out of the car. I had to go to the publishing house later, so there was no sense in pulling into the garage.

"Hey kids, welcome home," I heard Stiles say from inside as I got closer to the door. "Hey Ava, you okay? You're blanking out on us."

"Huh," I looked up and saw him waving his hand in my face, looking concerned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for holding down the fort till I got back. And you two," I started, turning my gaze to my siblings. "Homework at the dining room table now or you can't have any of the cookies Stiles made." With that, Carmen and Andy almost sprinted to the dining room and dug out their homework. Soon the long table was covered in papers, pencils, and workbooks.

"We'll be in the kitchen or living room," I said as I walked out of the room. "Holler if you need help and you can each have a cookie after I see a completed assignment from each of you." After hearing them groan from the weight of their new task, I smirked and grabbed Stiles' arm and dragged him with me towards the kitchen and the beeping oven.

"Thanks for helping out today," I said as I pulled the just short of burning cookies out of the oven.

Stiles stared at my hands as I held onto the still hot tray. "Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"

"What?" I looked at my hands and realized that I had forgotten to grab the mitts. "It's fine. The nerves in my hands were pretty much destroyed in the fire. I can't feel-" He reached around me and grabbed the tray with a single mit covered hand. "-the heat. Thanks, I guess."

"Just because you can't feel it doesn't mean that it can't hurt you," he chided as he placed the tray on the stove. "Besides, I thought you said the damage was limited."

I scoffed. "I did and it is. The nerves in my hands just don't recognize heat or pain," I argued. "I can still use them." I wiggled my fingers at him with a grin to prove my point.

"That's not really limited," he admonished. "That's pretty severe nerve damage. Have you seen a doctor about it?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, and I don't plan to either," I shrugged when he glared. "It's not a big deal, so move on. Thanks for helping today."

He smiled at me and said, "Anytime, especially since I get to stay here." He grinned and ran off to Andy's call from the dining room, leaving me to load the dishwasher.

"Ava!" Carmen called from somewhere in the age old house. "I need your help!"

I blinked at her worried tone and looked at the mess of dishes around me in what had been spotless kitchen. With a wave of my hand, the dishes were all in their places and the ones from the sink loaded into the machine. Nodding at my handiwork, I wiped my hands on my jeans and headed to her voice in the basement.

"What's wro-" I started to ask until I saw her standing in the middle of the den surrounded by piles of laundry. My concern turned to annoyance at the mess. "What did you do?"

"I think the house got tired of our laziness," she grinned until she saw that I was not amused. Sobering up she said, "I walked in and the clothes fell from the ceiling. Is the laundry room even on this floor?"

"No," I answered. "It's on the main floor. Why did you come down here anyway? You have homework that's not done yet."

She looked sheepish, but replied anyway. "I thought I heard something."

I rolled my eyes. "So you came down here by yourself to check?" She nodded. "You do understand that you can't do anything until you're thirteen, right?" She huffed and went over to the stairs before looking over her shoulder at me and grinning impishly.

"You're just worried that Stiles is gonna figure out the family secret before you tell him,"she joked.

"Yes I am worried that he'll figure it out before I have a chance to explain," I confessed. "But he's going to at some point, just not by having laundry magickally dropped on his head."

She stared at me for a second before spinning and dashing upstairs. I followed more slowly, but stopped at the base of the stairs. Turning back to the mess, I hesitated before snapping my fingers and watching the clothes fly around my head before vanishing back to their rightful places. Satisfied, I continued walking up the stairs and back into the dining room.

Stiles was still helping Andy when I walked in, but looked up and smiled before quickly looking back to the worksheet that looked a lot like long division. He didn't notice that his student wasn't paying attention. Andy was staring at me before glancing at Stiles and looking back again. He must have seen something because he shook his head before tuning back in to whatever Stiles was saying with a small grin.

Carmen had taken her seat at the table and soon came over to me with a notebook. I looked at it, checking her science homework, before handing it back to her with a nod. She bounced over to Andy to help with the math. The rule was, since they have to share everything, they only get rewards after both of them do the work. They insist that it's a twin thing, I think it's more like they just copy the other's work after they get the reward.

Andy soon jumped up and ran over to me with his worksheet that I didn't even bother checking. If Stiles was helping him, I'm sure he corrected as they went along. I nodded and watched as Carmen dragged Andy into the kitchen where I had left the cookies to cool on the rack. With a laugh, I joined Stiles at the table.

"You sure you want to stay here? Scott's place is less busy," I said with a grin, nodding towards the kitchen where we could hear Andy telling Carmen that he wanted Stiles to help him with his homework from now on.

He laughed, but nodded. "Yeah, but this way I get to make up for not seeing you at school." He smirked and jumped up, running to the kitchen. With a hopefully invisible blush, I got up and followed after.

What I saw should have shocked me more than it did to be honest. Stiles was holding a cookie up in the air with Carmen wrapped around his leg and Andy on his back with his arms around Stils' neck. I smothered a laugh, and pulled out my phone to take a quick picture. Hearing the fake shutter sound the camera gave, they all froze and whipped their heads around to stare at me. There was moment of intense staring before I was tackled by two small children and a not so small teenager.

"Give. Us. The. Camera. Ava." The twins said through clenched teeth. I laughed, but Stiles looked freaked out.

I shot him a quick glance before I said, "It's not a camera."

"Whatever it is. Give it!" Carmen shouted from her place on my stomach as Andy held down my legs.

"Stiles!" I shouted when I saw him sitting calmly, leaning against the cabinets. "Catch!" I pretended to toss him the phone. The twins were fool enough to lunge toward him while I scrambled up off the floor. "Hah! Suckers!'

The twins turned back to me and scowled. They made brief eye contact, before shrugging and turning back to Stiles. "So Stiles, did you know that Ava here has a-" They were cut off by my arms as I grabbed them from behind.

"Fine! You can take my phone to delete the picture. Just stop talking," I had already sent the picture to Stiles and to my email, so it's wasn't much of a loss, but I couldn't let them reveal the truth.

They looked at each other with smug grins as I handed them my cell phone. "We win!"

"Yeah yeah." Hearing the sound that meant they had deleted the picture, I snatched my phone back and told them to go finish their homework. "I'll bring the cookies in in a minute, so scoot." And scoot they did.

After they were gone, I looked at Stiles only to see how startlingly clear his brown eyes were up close. I yelped and jumped away.

"What were they about to say, Ava?" He sounded more than curious, but less than concerned. "Why didn't you want them to tell me?" Now he just sounded hurt.

With a grumbled "I'm going to kill them", I stood up, pulling him up as well, and led him to the library on the second floor. I took a deep breath before plunging into what I've been putting off for at least five months. "I know that you're a member of a werewolf pack." I didn't give him a chance to respond before I said, "And I know that Scott's a werewolf." I watched as he fell into one of the chairs in the room.

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. "Wha-? How did you-?" he opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it soon after.

"It gets better, or worse, depends on how you take it, I guess." At his dubious look, I revealed my family's secret. "I'm a witch."

That's when the constantly moving, always in motion teenaged boy that was one of my best friends, went completely still. He didn't faint, which meant that Carmen owed Andy fifteen bucks, but he might as well have for all the good it did.

"Stiles?" I hesitated to get closer, unsure of his reaction, but decided 'screw it' and took the steps needed to reach him, but not touch him. "C'mon, Stiles. Give me something. Scream, faint, yell, do something." When he still didn't move, I added a "Please."

His eyes were open, so he was conscious. I sighed and moved to my next plan of action, time to call the cavalry. I pulled out my phone without looking away from Stiles' face and dialed Scott.

He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hey Scott, you should come over. I think I broke Stiles. Bring your whole pack too. It's time that I told you all a story." And I hung up. Standing from my kneeling position next to the chair Stiles currently inhabited, I sighed and went to tell the twins to take their homework to their rooms and stay there until I called for them.

"Why?" Carmen asked. "What's wrong?"

"The house is about to be occupied by wolves, Hun. Oh, before I forget, he didn't faint. You owe Andy fifteen bucks." Turning to Andy, I said, "And you owe me five." That was the deal. When the twins made bets, whoever won gave me a third of the profit, which would go to the 'oh shit' jar, money used for pizzas or carry out or whatever. They do a lot of bets, so the jar is almost always full of bills.

Andy cheered, but then realized what I had said. He paled. "Werewolves are coming here?"

I nodded. "And they think I hurt Stiles in some way. Hence you two are going to make yourselves scarce, kapeesh?" They nodded, but looked worried. "Don't worry. I'm more than capable of handling seven werewolves and one hunter." I grinned. "Remember last time?" They broke out in giggle and I quickly ushered them to their rooms as the protection shields around the house sprung into place.

"It's show time." I reinforced the spells that protected the house and the twins before letting the shields that kept everyone unwelcome or threatening out down. I felt more than heard the front door crash into the adjoining wall and grimaced. Just because I was strong enough doesn't mean that this would be pleasant, these were my friends after all.


	4. Chapter 3

I forgot to do a disclaimer in the last two chapters, so here it is. I don't own anything you recognize.

I grimaced yet again when I saw that all seven wolves were partially transformed and that Allison had her bow aimed at me. With a sigh, I held my hands up in a harmless surrender. When that had no effect, I sighed again and chose to handle the entire situation like the witch I really was.

"Shooting me won't work, you know," I stated calmly. "And you werewolves are very frightening to someone like me, so chill." All I got in response was a series of growl out four letter words that I really hope the twins did not hear. "Rude."

Lydia spoke up from her place behind Jackson. "Where's Stiles?"

"He's in the library. He's perfectly fine, just a little stunned by what I told him," I said as though I wasn't being threatened by my own friends. It hurt, but I had to remind myself that I wasn't pack. I was their friend, but I was nothing compared to a member of their pack. "I'll let you, Danny, and Scott go to him, but no one else." Derek growled at me, but nodded and the three moved forward. Scott had been in my house a hundred times and knew his way to the library. "The house is warded, you'll be blocked if you go anywhere other than the library." They threw curious looks my way, but kept walking.

"How did you know about the pack?" I wasn't looking, but I'm pretty sure Peter said that since he was the least transformed.

I stared at him for a second before deciding that he had no intentions of maiming me as it was clear that the others did. "I'm only telling this story once because it's a long one. Join me in the living room as humans and we can talk once the others join us." They were clearly hesitant on turning back to humans, but I wasn't moving any further into my house until the fangs and claws were gone. They watched as Derek shifted back and slowly did the same. I motioned for them to follow me and smothered my smug grin when they did.

We had only been sitting in the living room for a few minutes when Lydia and Danny came down the stairs with Scott following close behind with Stiles stumbling after him. There was a collective, relieved sigh from the rest of the pack and I had to push down the rising affection in my chest and the fondness they all shared.

Scott to the space beside Allison, Lydia beside Jackson, Danny next to Isaac, and Stiles glanced at the space between Scott and Derek, but instead sat cautiously next to me. I was surprised, but that was nothing compared to the shock the others must have felt. I smiled as Stiles shyly and let my smile grow when he grinned back and leaned into the cushion behind us.

"So what did you say to Stiles that had him in so much shock?" Scott asked, breaking the tense silence. I could almost kiss that boy. "Are you a fairy or something? How'd you know about the pack anyways?" Nevermind, I'd much rather throw a book at him.

I glared. "I'm not some freaking fairy."

Allison cut across what Scott was about to say. "Then what are you?"

I ignored her and turned to Derek. "Do you remember the alliance your family had with witches up until about fourteen years ago? I know you were only six at the time, but you had to at least have heard about it." He nodded. "Do you remember the name of the coven?"  
He nodded again, but Peter was the one who answered. "The Henderson Coven led by Margaret Henderson until she died and passed the position on to her daughter Alexa. Alexa went mad and the Hales broke off the alliance."

I nodded. "Margaret was my grandmother and Alexa was my mother. My family is of witchblood. That's what I told Stiles before he went borderline comatose. That I'm a witch."

The room was silent. Scott raised his hand and I rolled my eyes before gesturing for him to speak. "So that's how you knew about us?" At my nod, he went on. "Why not say so sooner?"

"Before the fire, my mother was still head of the family, it was her job. And until now, I've been too busy taking care of my siblings, making up school work, and my job to tell a pack that may or may not even remember that we exist that we're still here." I'm sure my frustration leaked into my tone.

"Why tell Stiles?" Sometimes, I really hate Lydia. She's my best friend, but she's too smart for my own good.

I sighed. "The twins wanted something and started taunting me by pretending to tell him a secret. I stopped them, but he had already caught on." I sighed and shook my head. "If he hadn't asked flat out, I wouldn't have told him until I needed to." I felt my arm being poked and turned my attention to Stiles.

"So why did you tell me?"

I sighed once again. "Because a Henderson cannot lie to her Rose." I heard a gasp and knew that someone knew what I meant. "If you hadn't asked directly, I could have deflected somehow, but you didn't."

"Did you just call Stiles a rose?" Jackson asked from beside Lydia who was looking from me to Peter to Stiles and back to me. I think it's safe to assume that it was Peter who had gasped.

"Not a rose, a Rose. You know how werewolves have mates?" They all nodded and Lydia had that look that meant she knew where this was going. Sigh. "Well a Henderson witch has her Rose. It's like a soul mate or destined one." I said all of this without looking at Stiles. "Peter already mentioned how my mother went insane, that was because she never found her Rose. The Rose is like a werewolf's anchor, but for Henderson wiches. They stop the witch from descending into madness because of her magick." I took a deep breath and let it all out. "Any questions?" I asked, pointedly avoiding looking at Stiles.

"Can you show us a magick trick?"

"McCall!"  
"Scott!"

"You idiot!"  
I laughed. "Yes. I can show you a magick trick." I sat up straighter in my seat and held my hands out in front of me. I muttered under my breath about how perfect Scott is when it comes to diffusing situations and hummed slightly as my hand became enveloped in water seemingly out of nowhere. The water slowly turned purple and then bled to green followed by red. I moved my hands to opposite sides of my body instead of right in front of my and slammed them together. The water turned into silent little fireworks that disappeared as they fell to the floor. "Tada."

They just kind of stared at me until I waved my hands around to bring their attention back to the conversation. "Any other questions?"

Lydia spoke up. "Is that how you got around child services taking away the twins?" I nodded. "And how you got the school to let you do all your work from home?" I nodded again. "What about when you convinced Finstock to let the lacrosse team play Capture the Flag instead of practicing the week of exams last year?" I nodded and when she smiled, I realized what she had done. The others no longer saw my magick as tricks, but as legitimate magick that I could really use. I smiled at her, grateful for her intelligence. She nodded with a smile.

"So you're the reason he was so nice to us that week?" Isaac questioned excitedly. I nodded, but this time with a grin. "You are amazing. Thanks to that, I was actually able to study and pass my exams."

I laughed. "That's kind of why I did it." Gesturing to Scott and Stiles, I continued. "I knew that these two would fail if they went home exhausted from practice and there were no games that week or the next, so I figured why not." He grinned and we laughed at the indignant huff Scott sent my way. "Anything else?"

"Did you plan on re-establishing the alliance?" Peter asked after sharing a look with Derek.

"I was hoping to. Even if Stiles rejects being a Rose, I'm still in the same vicinity, so I won't go mad like my mother had. Plus, it would be mutually beneficial for a werewolf pack and a witch coven to be allies."

Derek looked at me then. "How so?"

"My protection spells are impenetrable, even to other witches. Nothing supernatural would be able to enter the territory without express permission. Humans could move freely, but no outside weapons would work until I cast the magick necessary." I waved one hand and they watched it gave off an eerie purple glow.

"That's how it would help us," Derek stated. "What about you?"

"I wouldn't have to worry about being attacked by your pack and the town would be safer than it's ever been. Plus, I have three people that would be that much safer." I sighed before admitting, "My spells are good, but even they aren't perfect."

"Three?" Erica chimed in from her spot almost on Boyd's lap. "I get your siblings, but who's the third?"  
"The Henderson Rose. I've had protective spells on Stiles for over three years now. " I glanced at the others. "You guys never noticed how he would only have the initial injury from a fight or that it would heal faster than any human?" They all shook their heads, before nodding slowly.

"We thought that it was a side effect of running with wolves," Scott stated.

"No," I instantly replied. "It's the effect of being a Rose combined with the protective spells I've been casting on him for a while now."

"Why would he be injured at all though?" Allison asked, her tone much more friendly now that I wasn't labeled as a threat.

"Like I said, my magick isn't perfect." I shook my head slighting, fighting off what would become a major migraine. "The spells only activate once he's been threatened. The fights you guys were involved in weren't about threats of violence, just violence. The spells could only protect from further damage as the first hit or injury would count as the threat. Then, once things would calm down, the healing spells would kick in at a pace faster than human, but not fast enough to draw unwanted attention."

I leaned my head back onto the cushion and summoned my migraine meds and a glass of water from the kitchen. I heard the faucet turn on the the shake of the pill bottle before several astonished gasps left the other occupants of the room. "This is mostly what my magick is used for when I'm not focussing on making sure people stay not dead." I grabbed the cup as it hovered by my head and waited until two pills were dropped into the palm of my hand. Rather unceremoniously, I swallowed the pills and washed them down with the water before letting the glass drop from my hand and vanish right before it shattered against the hardwood floor. I could hear it clink against the dishes in the sink, so I knew that the others could too.

"On that note, I'm going home," Lydia announced pulling Jackson along behind her. "See you later, Ava!"

"See ya, Lydia," I called, not moving from the chair. With that everyone seemed to file out of my house with partings of "See you later!" or "Bye, Ava!". Derek even told me that we would discuss the alliance later on after he had a chance to find out more about the past alliance. After a few short minutes, only Stiles remained and I could feel his stare on the side of my face.

"'Even if I reject you'?" He asked, reminding me of what I had said earlier about not descending into madness even if I got rejected. "What makes you think I'm going to reject you?"

I opened my eyes and peeled my head off of the back of the chair and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Because I'm not a strawberry blonde genius whose name rhymes with tibia." I closed my eyes again and sighed for the hundredth time today alone. I heard a growl and jolted to a sitting position with my eyes and hands glowing dangerously.

"Woah. Calm down Ava. There's no danger." The glow died down on my hands and I no was no longer looking at things through purple tinted lenses. "I don't like Lydia. Not like that anyway. Never have to be honest." At my confused look, he sighed. "Scott said that liking your best friend would make you jealous. It obviously didn't work, because it didn't even phase you. So tell me, do you even like me or is the thing about the Rose the only reason this is even a discussion we're having?"

I figured this would come up. "I've always liked you, but was too preoccupied with raising the twins to do anything about it. I knew that I couldn't be with you and saw no reason to stop you from being with Lydia." I paused for air and continued on. "The Rose is someone that the witch already has feelings for, but is also given a blessing by the witch's ancestors. Without the blessing, the spells that I cast to protect you wouldn't have worked nearly as well or kept for so long."

He grinned in a way that can only be described as boyishly and said, "So I already have their blessing?" He even did the eyebrow thing that had me rolling on the floor in laughter.

Once I calmed down enough to be able to talk, I replied, "Yes. You have their blessing and Carmen and Andy have been desperately trying not to-. Why am I still talking? Blabbering on incessantly is your thing, not my mine." He sent me an amused, if slightly insulted, look and chuckled.

"What have they been desperately trying not to do?" He asked with a smug grin.

"I hid my face behind my hands and muttered, "call you dad. They think it makes sense, since they've been calling me mom since they could talk." His shocked face told me that he heard enough to get the jist of what I had said, if not every word.

"We should probably tell them that it wouldn't be a good idea to call me that in public," he said as he stood from the chair. My head shot up and I stared at him as he walked to where the twins were waiting in their rooms. "You coming?"

I shot out of my spot and reached him just in time to grab his arm and stop him from opening their door. I dragged him to my home office and pushed him into the room. It wasn't until I had safely shut the door that I said anything though.

"What exactly are you trying to say, Stiles? Cause I don't want to read into something that isn't really there," I pleaded desperately.

He sighed like I was exasperating him and not having a itty bitty meltdown combined with a small heart attack. "I'm saying that they can call me dad as long as we're not in public. I'm saying that I pretended to like Lydia to make you jealous because I like you." He paused at glanced at his feet before looking directly at me for the first time since we entered the room. "I'm saying, Avaery, that I'm not rejecting you and that I'll be your Rose, your boyfriend, your anchor, whatever you want me to be. As long as I'm yours."

I nodded and he took however many steps it took to cross the room and sweep me up in his long arms.

I took a deep breath and said, "All of that and so much more, but we can have that conversation later." I stood up and backed out of his arms with a smile. "I believe you had an announcement to make to the twins."

"I believe that you are correct," he said with an equally happy smile. "Lead the way." I nodded and opened the door of my office, but hadn't taken one step into the hallway when I swept up into the most perfect of perfect first kisses. He let me go and I stepped back, staring up at his face. He grinned and motioned me through the door. I stuck my tongue out at him and leapt back as he tried to grab it.

"No way mister!" I taunted as I dashed into the hallway. "You still need to make your announcement."

He followed at a more relaxed pace. "Our announcement, you mean."

I started to nod, but shook my head. "That makes it sound like I'm pregnant, so we're not gonna say that. Plus, they already call me mom. You're the only one becoming a parent here, so it's your announcement."

We arrived at the doorway to the twins' shared toy room at roughly the same time. So not fair because I was running and he was walking, but he is like six feet and I'm barely 5'4. He raised his hand to knock, glanced at me, and n let his fist hit the wooden door.

"Ava?"The voices inside called. "It is safe?"

"Yeah," hollered back. "Open up."

Carmen opened the door and stepped back to let us in. "So everything's okay, right?"

I nodded and motioned to Stiles to tell them. "Stiles has something he wants to tell you guys."

They both looked to him and he cleared his throat before talking. "Ava and I have decided that you two can call me dad or whatever you want as long as it's not in public." Their eyes lit up and they turned to me for confirmation. When I nodded, they grinned and jumped of Stiles with synchronized shouts of "Daddy!"

I almost felt bad for him, but when I considered helping him up, I remembered the incident that started this whole thing and figured 'Karma' and just let it be.

Stiles saw me not moving to help him in the slightest and reached up, grabbing my hand and giving a good yank that brought me sprawling to the ground beside him with Carmen and Andy curled up between us. I smiled at him and when he looked up from watching the twins as they fell asleep, he grinned and leaned in to kiss me over their heads.

"Ew." the twins said in synch. "Mommy and Daddy aren't allowed to kiss when we're right here. Just no."

I laughed. "I thought you two were asleep. It's like ten o'clock."

"We're sleepy," Carmen muttered drowsily.

"Just not asleep yet," Andy drawled, equally as tired sounding.

I picked up Carmen who was closest to me and motioned for Stiles to do the same with Andy and we placed them on the already open sofa bed and tucked them in. Even though each twin had their own bedroom, they wanted a pullout couch for their toy room because they prefer to sleep together. It would be an actual bed, but I wanted them to sleep in their own beds more than the shared sofa bed. They were twins and they chose to share everything, but they would have to separate at some point. hence the separate, but connected bedrooms with doors in the walls leading to the shared toy room.

Once they were both in bed, I grabbed Stiles' hand and pulled him toward my room to sleep. Witches are a lot like werewolves, nothing helps them sleep better than being wrapped in their mate's arms. Safe to say, that night was the best sleep I had ever had.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then I don't own the idea behind it.

Waking up the next morning was difficult to say the least. During the night, not only had the twins crawled into bed with us, but also seven werewolves that are basically living furnaces and their four human counterparts.

I was the only one awake, so after doing a headcount, I double checked the spells on the house. I know that I replaced them after last night, so the only way the Pack could have gotten in was with the help of someone already inside. I turned my attention back to the dozing twins and sighed. This had Carmen written all over it.

I nuzzled back into Stiles' chest to go back to sleep, but froze when I heard movement from across my bedroom. I turned my head slowly and felt my magick slink down from my shoulder to my hand where it hovered over the blankets. I sighed and released the energy when I saw only Peter.

"It's a puppy pile," Peter commented as he sat in the deep purple chaise by my bookshelf reading some ancient looking text. He looked up from its worn pages, "You'll have to get used to them as a member of the pack. Your siblings let us in, if you were curious."

"I figured as much." I was going to leave it at that and go back to sleeping with the others when something odd occurred to me. "Why did you all come back?"

He looked at me like I was a petulant child before shaking his head and setting down the book. He stood and leaned nonchalantly against the bookshelf. He chuckled when I glared at him and removed his weight from the breakable shelving. "You're pack," he said gesturing to the other occupants of my king sized bed. "They were all going crazy not being able to be near you. It's interesting really. Aside from being pack, you are the only common link between nearly all of them. Why is that?" He cocked his head, taking a few steps closer to the bed, and stared at me. By this point, I had already gotten out of the overly warm and toasty bed without disturbing anyone and wandered over to my bookshelf to grab my grandmother's journal from amongst the collection of centuries old leather bound books Peter had previously been leaning on.

"I'm a witch." As if that explained everything, which to me it did. He continued to stare with calculating eyes. "Witches have covens. A coven is kind of like a pack, but not species exclusive. The difference is that a werewolf pack is chosen by the alpha whereas a witch coven will just fall together around the witch." I motioned to the pile of bodies in my bed. "The beginnings of my coven, I'm afraid. It started forming around me when I turned thirteen. Not including Stiles and Scott, that was the year I became friends with all of them."

"Witches get their magic at thirteen," Peter remarked filling in any gaps as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, careful to not wake anyone. "When you got your magic, you subconsciously started building your coven and recognized your Rose." I nodded and crossed the room to hand him the journal.

"Here." He looked curious, but hesitated to take it. "It's my grandmother's journal. It'll clear up everything and explain whatever I don't cover." He nodded and grasped the book gently, lifting it carefully from my outstretched hand. "So I'm pack?" I asked, walking to sit in the spot previously occupied by Peter.

He nodded and spared the others a glance before looking back to me. "Yes. From the beginning really, but no one fully understood why. You weren't a wolf and you weren't a mate, so no one knew your role."

"Is that why no one said anything?" Then again, I didn't mention being a witch to them either. "I mean, others were brought in, but Stiles and Scott went out of their way to not involve me."

He nodded, but shook his head. "We all knew that you were pack, but since we didn't know why, we just left it alone in favor of dealing with the Alpha Pack." He paused. "How were you not affected by the Alpha Pack in the slightest?"

"Wards," I said as I scanned the orderly shelves for the book containing protection magick. "And I actually did what I could to stay out of their crosshairs." I stopped looking for the book when I remembered that I had left it in the downstairs library. I sighed and blinked when Peter's ears perked up at the sound.

"What's wrong?" His voice was laced with what sounded like genuine concern.

I sighed again and huffed under my breath. "Nothing. The book I was looking for to show you the wards is downstairs." I glanced at the bed and saw more movement than before, so turning back to a still staring Peter, I asked "Want to help me make these guys breakfast? We can swing by the library on the way."

He grinned and nodded. Standing, he held out his right hand to help me up, but frowned when I held up my left. He rolled his eyes, retreated his right hand to his side and replaced it with his left. I placed my hand in his and waited as my magick took effect.

He gasped and stared at our intertwined hands as the purple tinted air shimmered around them. He continued to stare, slack jawed, until the magick faded. His gaze remained on our hands until I withdrew mine and started toward the door. "You coming?" I asked, pausing over the threshold without turning back. I resumed walking when I heard him take a breath of air and hurry after me.

We were barely five feet away from my room when he caught up and asked, "What was that?"

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, but made no other motion to show that I heard.

"What kind of magick was that?" He asked. Taking note of my lack of response, he growled and grabbed my shoulder, halting my movement while turning me to face him. "What did you do?" He growled through clenched teeth.

"It was a spell boost," I answered. "It was to strengthen the protection spells that were already in place. I'll have to do the same with everyone else, too." He looked conflicted on whether or not he believed me, but let me go anyway. I stepped back and watched carefully as he gestured for me to continue walking. When I did, he followed as though nothing had happened.

"So," he started. "Does your magick always feel like that?" We were approaching the stairwell that would lead us to the downstairs hallway connecting to the library. I hesitated to step off of the second floor landing, but shook it off and took the first steps, slightly behind him.

"I would assume so. I don't really feel anything anymore since the magick flows through me pretty much twenty-four seven." He nodded like it made sense to him. He's pretty smart, so maybe it did. "What did the magick feel like to you?"

He didn't answer immediately, actually thinking about his response. "I'm not sure to be honest. It was almost like being electrocuted, just without the pain. Almost as though it was live energy running through me." His voice died off at the end and I nodded in understanding.

We got to the main floor and I opened up the library for him to see. My library is different from most human or even witch libraries. It was more than just a room full of books. The centuries worth of pure magick that had collected in this room was enough to knock most people off their feet despite not even knowing what it was. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with shelves of books; some in an orderly fashion, others not so much. Books like the family journals dating back to the 1600s, tomes of ancient spells and potions, and massive volumes containing anything and everything relating to the supernatural. There were also the standard library books, too. Textbooks, novels, kids' books. The library was large to say the least and it had its own sitting room, work space, and since it doubled as my home office, office space as well.

Peter looked in awe, standing frozen by the door as I ventured in to collect to book of protection wards that I had been looking for. I snatched the book from the corner of my desk and turned to face the stock still werewolf. I grinned. "You ready to head for the kitchen?"

He jolted, shaking his head and nodded looking torn.

I took pity on the obviously studious man. "I promise that you can come back and explore whenever you want." He grinned and we started for the kitchen to begin on the mountain of food it would take to satisfy the group that I could hear meandering about upstairs.

Peter hesitated before fully following me into the kitchen. "Are we going to have enough time to make everything?" He asked also having heard the others start to move around.

I smirked at him over my shoulder. "Witch, remember?" With that, I cast the spells necessary to have the ingredients for pancakes, waffles, coffee, hot chocolate, bacon, sausage, ham, fruit salad, and scrambled eggs floating over our heads and around the kitchen. "Go sit at the island and warn me when they actually come down the stairs, would you?" He nodded with a grin and did as I had requested.

It wasn't ten minutes later that he said something and I heard the thundering steps headed for our location. The eggs were done, the waffles and pancakes waiting in the oven to keep warm, the coffee pot steaming, hot chocolate at the ready, fruit salad done, and the meats on plates resting on the now covered island.

The first ones down the stairs were not surprisingly Derek and Jackson since I've seen both of them go out on early morning jogs. Following them were Danny, Lydia, and Allison who tiredly reached for the coffee mugs. Boyd, Erica, and Isaac came down about five minutes later each grumbling about the smell of food. That left Stiles, Scott, and the twins in bed. I grinned and waited until everyone seemed to have gotten their food before divulging my plan.

"Alrighty then," I drawled bringing their attention to me. "It's just Stiles, Scott, and my siblings left in bed, so we're going to have some fun." They looked nervous, but I went on anyway. "Who's good at pranking?"

They all glanced at one another and shook their heads when they turned back to face me. "Stiles is usually the planner," Isaac muttered around a mouthful of fruit salad.

I chuckled at spared a glance at Derek. "Well, we're going to be pranking him. Think of it like a training exercise. Eventually, you'll all have to come up with some kind of plan or strategy." Derek nodded, agreeing with my reasoning. "Plus, you won't have to do anything if you don't want to. Just help to come up with some ideas."

Erica bounced in her seat. "What if we tie them to the bedframe and draw on them with sharpie?"

I sent her a look before shooting down her idea entirely. "You want to tie a werewolf, a witch in training, a metahuman, and a witch's Rose to my bed?" She nodded, excitedly. "No. They would tear it to pieces in a panic." She looked thoughtful before shrugging, abandoning the idea. "But that's a step in the right direction. Who's next?"

"What about casting some kind of spell that turns anything they say into pig noises?" Danny suggests. The others grinned and scrambled to add their ideas.

"What if the more frustrated they got, the more pig-like they became?"

"What if they had pig feet?"  
"What if their clothes turned pink?"

"Okay," I cut across before they started a frenzie. "We can do most of those. No to the pigs' feet, Isaac, someone would get hurt. Clothes, yes. Pig-like transformations, possibly. What exactly were you thinking, Boyd?"

He blinked, "Just a snout, a tail, and the ears." He smiled sheepishly when Erica draped her arm around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his chin.

"And there we have it," I announced. "Anything anyone else would like to add?"  
"Yeah," a voice replied from behind me. I whirled around to see Stiles in the hallway with Andy sitting on his shoulders. "When were you planning on enacting your plan? Before or after waking us up with the yelling?"

I groaned and slapped a hand against my forehead. Of course we were being too loud. I stared at him from behind my hand, an in vain attempt to hide my sheepish grin and the rising blush since he wasn't wearing a shirt. "Before, actually."

The sound of one of the bar stools moving caught my attention and I turned in time to see Lydia standing up and placing her dishes in the sink. She turned back around empty handed and squinted at Stiles. "If you heard us, why is Scott not down here as well? He must have heard us if you could. And why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

Stiles shrugged, ignoring both of her questions that were more like accusations and placed Andy on the ground, deciding to get some food before the were-vacuums ate it all. Andy stumbled over to me and collapsed tiredly against my legs. "Mommy," he grumbled. "I'm sleepy and I'm hungry." I nodded, he was usually like this when he first woke up.

Ignoring the surprised looks of the Pack, I kneeled to his height and ran my fingers through his hair. "I know, baby boy. Let me fix you and Carmen some food and then you can eat." He nodded and I asked the now done Allison to go get Carmen from my bedroom.

"Sure," she responded and headed to the stairs just as Scott arrived with a still sleeping Carmen in his arms. "Nevermind, then," she joked and sat back down in the dining room where she was soon joined by the others. I transported the food trays onto the dining room table and smirked when Scott yelped.

I sat next to Stiles and sighed contentedly when he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Andy was beside me on my left with a slowly waking Carmen next to him. She groaned and ate the piece of fruit that Andy had been holding in front of her mouth. She smiled and fully opened her eyes to eat the rest of her food.

"So," Jackson started. "Why did Andy call you 'Mommy'?" The others looked curious and some nodded their head, agreeing with the question.

I smiled when I felt Stiles grin against my hair. "He calls her Mommy because she raised him in place of his mother," Stiles said removing his arm from my shoulder to reach for his mug of coffee. Putting the drink back on the table, he said, "Carmen does it too." The Pack looked to me for confirmation and I nodded with a slight smile. I didn't like talking about Alexa and Stiles' explanation would only go in that direction.

Allison was the one who bothered asking why. She didn't know about my family history like most everyone who lived in Beacon Hills did. "Why? Where was your mother?"

There was a resounding hush that came over the table as they waited with baited breath for my reaction. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "She died," I began. "A few months ago in a house fire that police suspect she set herself to kill me, the twins, and her." Allison gasped while the others just looked down at their laps. Most knew of the suspicions law enforcement had about the fire and a lot of the townspeople thought I didn't know, shouldn't know. "Any other questions? They don't bother me, so ask away."

"How can they not bother you?" Jackson exclaimed. "That's your mother you're talking about!"

"Jackson!" Derek growled at his beta, attempting to stop whatever was about to start.

"It's fine," I muttered. Derek was still growling at Jackson.

"It's fine, Derek," I said a second time, making eye contact with the Alpha. Looking to Jackson I chuckled. "You could say that we didn't quite get along. Or, you could take into account that she tried to kill not only me but also Carman and Andy." He flinched. "Any compassion or love I had for that woman was gone long before she started that fire," I snarled. "So, no, talking about her death does not bother me."

"Sorry," Jackson mumbled, not making eye contact. I nodded, leaning over Andy to help Carmen cut her pancakes.

"So," I prompted. "What's the game plan?"


End file.
